Powerball Jackpot Tops $150 Million After 9th Drawing With No Big Winner

The Powerball jackpot soared to $152 million after Saturday saw the ninth consecutive drawing with no match for all six numbers in the nationwide lottery game. The jackpot is the second-largest in the Powerball game this year.

Other than the February 19 $425 million jackpot won by California Powerball player Raymond Buxton, Wednesday’s $152 million prize is the largest Powerball jackpot since a $216 million prize last October 23.

Though no one had a Powerball ticket good for the jackpot, two tickets sold for Saturday’s drawing matched the first five numbers but not the Power Ball, earning $1 million each for the lucky ticket buyers.

One of those million dollar Powerball tickets was sold in Pensylvania, the other in Washington.

Just because no one won the jackpot doesn’t mean that there weren’t plenty of other winners in Saturday’s Powerball drawing. In addition to the two “Match 5” million dollar winners, 19 tickets matched four of the first five numbers plus the Power Ball. Of those, 15 will be good for a $10,000 payout.

But four of the lucky “4+1” winners spent an extra dollar on their Powerball tickets to activate the Power Play option, making those four tickets each worth $20,000.

The single payment option for Wednesday’s Powerball jackpot will be $89.6 million. Of that, Uncle Sam will extract an estimated $22.4 million in taxes, leaving the winner — if there is one — with a bank account $67.2 million heftier.

If a Powerball jackpot winner Wednesday were to select the annuity option, the full $152 million would be paid out in increasing annual installments. The first payment would total $2,710,175. The final payment, in the year 2033 would be for $842,091.

In total, $5,312,552 in cash was won by Powerball players Saturday. Is some of the money yours? You won’t be a jackpot winner, but you may still be a winner. Check your Powerball ticket against these numbers, drawn at 10:59 pm in Tallahassee, Florida:

15 — 16 — 28 — 49 — 55 Power Ball 18

In other lottery news, no one won the Lotto Texas jackpot of $37.4 million Saturday, the largest jackpot in that game since May of 2010. The Texas Jackpot is now the third-largest anywhere in the country after one California lottery player who bought a ticket at a Safeway grocery store in San Francisco won that state’s Super Lotto Plus $70 million jackpot.

The odds against winning the Powerball jackpot are 175,223,510 to one.